Mitsubishi Evolution 9 Review: Car of 9 Tails

The Evo is utterly able to instigate forward acceleration lasting for days on end, but you know, that’s half the fun of driving this machine. Making a seriously quick dash through the curves, eating up the elevated kerbs of those apexes right off the sweepers are even more fun. Generating seriously large amounts of g-forces is its forte, and it really brings tears to your eyes, making your passengers beg you to stop in the face of how fast this car corners.

Every turn is approached with such a high speed, making the inexperienced driver nervous and passengers think that they’re going to die (but would you house anyone else in these situations?) Then one merely shifts the weight to the front, and turns the steering wheel. Voila!

Nothing happens, everything is as smooth as butter, and guess what? You’ve just lived through a corner of 1g. It just wants to tear through anything and everything with such ferocity, making overtaking on the freeway even more fun than ever.

A beefy suspension setup, in addition to the potent 4 wheel drive combination, is the basis for the car’s unquestionable performance and handling dynamics. Minimalism rules the day, and less is more. This still manages to make the car look classy on the inside, which is a good thing.

Little is left from the normal range of Lancers. Mitsubishi gives every Evo Bilstein shocks, ultra-firm spring rates, and really stiff sway bars all around. The car rolls on 235/45 Yokohama Advan semi slicks, paired with 17"x8" Enkei rims that are a lighter shade of Silver compared to those from the previous models.

Everyone loved the bucket seats. They are Recaros that come in a classic, grayish black colour tone, and are stitched in a beautiful, striking red – a combination that always gets my juices flowing. The steering wheel is extremely chunky, and it is just so lovely to grip. On such a car, I am sure many would have appreciated a reach adjustment feature built in instead of just height.

The instrument cluster is very straight forward. Dominated by the tachometer and speedometer, they are complimented by a rather tacky looking Ralliart gauge cluster that shows up boost, oil and water temperature. You find the same ones on the Colt Version R and the Colt Plus Ralliart.

An Evo was never meant to be a comfortable, luxury liner, more so with the MR. The windows, locks and mirrors are motorized, and a keyless entry system pretty much rounds out the power conveniences.

There's no sunroof, but why would you want one anyway? It reduces stiffness and increases flex. There are no power seats, and other than aircon, the climate control is bargain stuff. Cheers to them for including Xenon HID headlights though, because with a car this fast, you want to enhance visibility on the outside and keep your focus on not crashing out.

We do not even need to tell you why you should get the MR over the standard Evolution. It is faster, fiercer, and overall, more potent a car than any previous Evo can ever imagine to be, sans heavily tuned ones of course.

It further enforces this fact, because just too many out there have taken to the charm of this monster machine. So if you can afford the sub $140,000 price tag, you just cannot go wrong. In fact, I'm having a little bit of trouble returning the keys back to Mitsubishi today...

Credits: Amery Reuben